YENIKEUIJ.       93

The largest mansion in the village was built by the celebrated and unfortunate Dooz Oglou, the great banker and diplomatist, and one of the most talented, as well as the wealthiest Armenian in Turkey. When high in favour with the Sultan, he purchased a small kiosque at Yenikeui, and formed so great an attachment to the locality, that he determined on erecting there a residence worthy of his princely fortunes. This spacious palace - for, although, as is common in the country, the building is almost entirely composed of wood, it cannot be consistently called by any other name - presents a comparatively insignificant facade to the water; but occupies the whole line from thence to the foot of the height, and traverses the public street of the village by a covered bridge, which is occupied by a wide gallery leading to the dining saloon.

To obtain sufficient space for the erection of this noble dwelling, and the formation of the grounds about it, Dooz Oglou purchased no less than five and thirty houses, for which he paid, in every instance, several hundred piastres beyond the demand of their owner; and once established, he filled his spacious apartments with costly furniture, and all the luxuries which unbounded wealth and a fine taste could command. Alas! he was but gilding his own ruin, and lavishing his resources upon a pile which was not even destined to be his monument. This outlay awoke the cupidity of the Ottoman court, which was at that period much more venal than it is at present, and his ostentation alarmed its vanity; he was accused of usury, or treason, or both - for the nature of his crime was never clearly defined - his property was confiscated, and he was hanged upon his own threshold, from a staple driven into the wood-work of the gate opening upon the seaward terrace. The mansion at Yenikeui was subsequently presented by the Sultan to Nicholas Aristarchi, the present Logotheti,(*) by whom it is inhabited during the summer.

Yenikeui is also remarkable as being one of the three hamlets in which the Greek "Festival of Fire," instituted in commemoration of the second capture of Constantinople by the Caesars, is still permitted to be held. This singular ceremony was formerly common in all the Greek villages, and even in that quarter of the capital itself in which that nation reside; but the privilege of promiscuous illumination has been withdrawn, owing to the great risk of conflagration to which it subjected to the city; and the festival is now held only at Yenikeui, Therapia and Buyukdèrè.

Artificial islands, formed of hurdles, and heaped with inflammable matter, are formed in the bay - caiques, saturated with bitumen, are moored off the shore - and lines of bonfires are raised along the coast, linking the three hamlets together - all of which are simultaneously ignited at a given signal, and the effect is awfully grand and impressive.

(*) Archi-Chancellor of the Patriarchate, and Head of the Greek Synod in 1836.